The British writer and Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, died at his home in London at the age of 85, family sources said

The British writer and Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, died at his home in London at the age of 85, family sources said on Saturday.

His wife, Lady Naipaul, who described the author as a giant in everything he achieved, said in a statement that "he died surrounded by all the people he loved, having lived a life full of wonderful creativity and effort".

In addition to the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001, V.S. Naipaul also won the Booker Prize in 1971, and was considered one of the most important writers in the English language of the 20th and 21st centuries, Efe reported.

He was born in Chaguanas, on the island of Trinidad and Tobago, in a family descended from Indian immigrants. From there he traveled to the UK and entered the University of Oxford in 1950 after winning a government scholarship.

He began his literary career in 1961 and since then has written about 30 books, although it was the novel "A House for Mr Biswas" that launched him to fame.

A few of his readers, fans and critics, including Salman Rushdie took to Twitter to condole:

We disagreed all our lives, about politics, about literature, and I feel as sad as if I just lost a beloved older brother. RIP Vidia. #VSNaipaul

In the 1960s, #VSNaipaul visited India. My father joined BHU protests over the author’s arrival and his “wretched” labeling of a land/people. Papa moved to America a decade later and tried Naipaul again. And saw him (and home) in new light. Glad both exposed me to this dichotomy.